Jon Gray is stellar as Rangers win Bruce Bochy’s return to San Francisco

Jon Gray combined with two relievers on a three-hitter, Nathaniel Lowe and Mitch Garver hit consecutive pitches for home runs and the Texas Rangers celebrated manager Bruce Bochy’s return to San Francisco with a 2-1 victory over the host Giants on Friday night

The Oracle Park visit was the first for the 68-year-old Bochy since he stepped down after the 2019 season following 13 years as the Giants‘ manager, a stint that included three World Series championships

Bochy watched Gray (8-5) throw a gem. Over seven shutout innings, the right-hander allowed just a leadoff single to Joc Pederson in the second and a two-out single to Patrick Bailey in the fifth, with neither baserunner advancing past first base

Gray, who had entered the game with a 2-8 lifetime record against the Giants, struck out seven without issuing a walk

Aroldis Chapman pitched around a one-out walk and two wild pitches in a hitless eighth, before the Giants got on the board in the ninth against Will Smith on a Heliot Ramos pinch-hit double, on which he advanced to third on a throwing error, and a Thairo Estrada RBI infield out

Smith then retired Wilmer Flores and Pederson on fly balls to lock down his 22nd save and give the Rangers a ninth win in their last 10 games

After taking over for opener Scott Alexander, who threw a scoreless top of the first, Ross Stripling (0-5) matched Gray pitch for pitch in a scoreless duel until Lowe bombed his 14th homer of the season to right field with two outs in the sixth to open the scoring

The reception for Lowe in the dugout hadn’t ended before Garver launched Stripling’s next pitch well over the fence in left-center field for his eighth homer of the year

The homers by Lowe and Garver were the only extra-base hits of the contest until Ramos’ double in the ninth

Stripling finished the inning and then was lifted, charged with two runs on five hits in five innings. He struck out three and did not walk anyone

Ryan Walker, Taylor Rogers and Luke Jackson kept the Giants within arm’s length with a scoreless inning apiece but couldn’t prevent a fifth loss in the club’s last six games

Marcus Semien had a pair of singles for the Rangers, who were coming off a 2-1 series win across the San Francisco Bay against the Oakland Athletics

–Field Level Medi